


similarities and differences

by dummysapphic



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Adora (She-Ra) is a Dork, Attempt at Humor, Bow Is a Good Friend (She-Ra), F/F, F/M, Fluff, Glimmer (She-Ra) is a Good Friend, How Do I Tag, I'm Bad At Tagging, Light Angst, Magic, New Planets, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, catra and adora are way too competitive, catra is the sister that glimmer never had
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:42:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27202639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dummysapphic/pseuds/dummysapphic
Summary: 5 times Catra is a bad influence on Adora + 1 time Adora is a bad influence on Catra.OR: The Rebellion is Fed Up™ with these idiots.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 191





	similarities and differences

**Author's Note:**

> hope you guys enjoy! i love the idea of catra and glimmer being like sisters, its just so cute to me. 
> 
> if you want, you could leave a kudo or a comment! but that's up to you. i love reading any comments I get! 
> 
> ok so just so you guys know:
> 
> "The "Sparkles" Incident" takes place 10 years after season 5.  
> "Just Go With the Flow" takes place around 2 years after season 5.  
> "Prank War" takes place a few months to 2 years after season 5.  
> "The Rebellion Bans" takes place a few weeks after season 5.  
> "Motherly Instinct" takes place over 15 years after season 5.  
> Meeting the Parents" takes place a month or so after season 5.
> 
> i hope you like this fic!

1\. The “Sparkles” Incident

It was no secret that Catra rarely called Glimmer by her real name. She had been calling her Sparkles since before the war even ended. It was a funny way to tease the Queen of Brightmoon. Glimmer was initially annoyed at the nickname, but as the two grew closer, she was fine with Catra calling her that. In fact, she actually thinks it’s a bit funny. Catra calls Glimmer ‘Sparkles’, and Glimmer calls Catra ‘Horde Scum’. They’re like childhood nicknames between two sisters. Glimmer always wanted a sister.

It was kind of like a hidden rule in the Rebellion now. Nobody except Catra calls Glimmer ‘Sparkles’. Nobody had ever broken this rule, as it would be rude. It wasn’t rude when Catra did it, but it definitely would be if anyone else did.

Nobody had broken the rule, until one specific Princess meeting. 

Glimmer and Bow, the Queen and King of Brightmoon, were already in the war room preparing when the Princesses (plus Catra and Sea Hawk) began to come in. They all looked a bit tired, since they had spent the entirety of the previous day cleaning up a village affected by a pack of wild Boars. The entire village was chaos but they managed to finish cleaning up, albeit very late at night.

All of the Rebellion members sat down in their respective chairs and began chatting with one another before the meeting began and they would have to get to work thinking about whatever random political problem they had to deal with, whether that be on Etheria or a neighboring planet apart of the Intergalactic Rebellion. 

Catra and Adora went to their chairs beside Bow and Glimmer, and sat down, talking in hushed voices and giggling. Glimmer sighed, but still greeted them cheerily, despite having seen them a few hours ago,“Hey, you two!” Catra and Adora may be idiots, but they were her best friends. 

The two stopped their whispering and looked up at the Queen of Brightmoon. Catra was about to say something, but Adora spoke up first. 

“Hey, Sparkles!”

The words were so uncharacteristic for Adora. She sounded exactly like Catra, and she didn’t even notice. This was so uncharacteristic for Adora, in fact, that everyone stopped talking to look at her, surprise evident in their expressions. Catra had a mix of surprise and pure glee on her face at her wife’s words.

Adora, being as clueless as she is, didn’t notice everyone’s faces. It wasn’t until she heard Glimmer gasp quietly that she looked around the room, confusion all over her face, “What?”

She stopped, her eyes going wide, when she realized her mistake. “Oh no, Glimmer I’m sorry!”

Glimmer looked at Adora with a confused look, before laughing, “Adora, it’s okay.” She was honestly a bit confused as to why Adora had called her by that nickname. She’d never done that before, in all their years of friendship. Adora attempted to explain, “I didn’t mean to say that! It’s just, I hear Catra call you that all the time so I got mixed up, and I-I didn’t get much sleep last night! I promise it wasn’t on purpose!” She continued to try to explain herself.

Adora’s explanation was cut off by Catra laughing so hard, tears began forming in her mismatched eyes. Through her laughter, Catra turned to her wife, “Adora, I have never been more proud of you in my entire life.” Catra’s laughter helped make everyone else less uncomfortable. Everyone began to laugh, while trying to comfort Adora for her innocent mistake.

Adora, blushing from embarrassment, turned to look at her wife, “What about when I saved the universe at the Heart of Etheria?” 

Catra, still laughing, wiped the unshed tears of laughter from her eyes before replying “No, this is way above that. I mean, did you see Sparkles’ face? Priceless.” Adora knew her wife was just teasing her, but that didn’t stop her from blushing more and turning to look at Glimmer with an apologetic look. 

Glimmer seemed to sense her friend’s distress, and added “Adora, really, it’s fine. Surprising, but fine. I’ll just pretend this never happened.” Adora sighed with relief at her friend’s words.

“Thanks, Glimmer.” 

While Glimmer and everyone else at that meeting never mention the incident after it occurs, the same could definitely not be said for Catra. She never fails to bring it up every time someone comments on how good friends Adora and Glimmer are. Adora always becomes embarrassed at the looks she gets when people find out she called her best friend the wrong name one time, while Glimmer and Catra just laugh. To be fair, it IS hilarious.

\-----  
2\. Just Go With the Flow!

Throughout her entire life, Adora has been a planner. She likes to know exactly what she has to do and when to do it, to the point where it’s almost concerning. Really, nobody can blame her for this habit, though. After all, she did grow up in the Horde under the watchful eye of Shadow Weaver telling her she had to be the best. Who wouldn’t be a bit of a control freak after that?

Currently, the Best Friend Squad was trying to bring magic to the latest planet on their intergalactic itinerary, which Adora made. They had planned what to do when they met the residents of the planet. If the citizens wanted magic on their planet, they would give it to them. If they didn’t, back on Darla they went. They were prepared for whatever this planet had to throw at them.

What they weren’t expecting was for the people of the first village they arrived in to take them hostage. It was so quick, they didn’t have any time to do anything. The people placed the four newcomers into one jail cell while they were still tied up. 

Glimmer stood up, arms tied in front of her, and looked around the small metal cell, “What the hell was that?!” Catra chuckled “I don’t think they want our magic.” Glimmer rolled her eyes, “Yeah, I figured that out!”

Catra and Glimmer began to bicker with each other, a regular occurrence for the group. Bow attempted to calm them down and get them to focus on the task at hand, failing miserably. He looked over to Adora, who was staring quietly at the guard posted in front of their cell while still sitting on the floor, legs stretched out in front of her and hands bound by rope sitting in her lap, as if she was bored of being held hostage on an unknown planet. She began to talk to the guard. 

“Hey! Guard! Why are you keeping us here?” The guard looked over at her, with a look of indifference, “You are trespassing on our planet.” Adora nodded, and the three other prisoners looked at her. 

‘What is her plan?’ the three thought simultaneously. 

“Okay, but we’re here to bring magic to this planet. Do you want us to do that?” Adora seemed genuinely interested in his answer and, to be fair, she probably was. His answer would dictate what their plan would be when they escaped. 

“No. Magic is evil. It has only caused us problems. We don’t need it.” Adora looked back at the rest of the Best Friend Squad. They all seemed to have the same look on their faces. A look that read ‘We should get off this planet, now.” They all understood each other perfectly. 

With that, Adora stood up. “Okay, great! So let us go, and we’ll leave you alone. We’ll go right back onto our ship and fly back to our planet, I promise.” The guard looked over and it was obvious he didn’t believe her. “No. Invaders must be executed.” All four of them groaned and sat down together on the floor. 

They began to whisper out a plan, but they couldn’t think of anything past “Break the door down and fight anyone who gets in our way.” That idea came from Catra. They couldn’t really do anything with the guard right there. If only Melog hadn’t stayed on the ship with Entrapta and Wrong Hordak to make sure they didn’t blow up their only mode of transportation. Adora turned to look at what was directly outside the cell for something, anything, that could help them escape. Suddenly, she saw an opportunity. The keys of their cell hanging on the wall opposite of their cell. 

Adora began to think of a way to get the keys. She could turn her sword into a long stick with a hooked end to grab them, but the guard would immediately stop her. So, how does she get the guard to not stop her? 

She gets an idea. 

While the others are still discussing, she stands up and walks to the front of the cell, closest to the guard. “Hey, you! What’s your name?” The guard, confused, looked at her without moving from his position. “That is none of your concern.” This might be difficult. Catra, Bow, and Glimmer watched the interaction from the floor. It’s not like they had a plan, either. 

But to be fair, neither did Adora. 

“Oh come on, you’re going to execute us anyway so why not get to know us?” She glanced towards her very confused friends and girlfriend before looking back at the guard.

The guard seemed to consider this before sighing, “My name is Kyrio.” Adora grinned at that. Maybe she could actually do this.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Kyrio! I’m Adora, and these are my friends!” She stuck both her tied hands through the metal bars of their jail cell to try to shake the guard’s hand. Kyrio, now turned fully towards Adora, seemed hesitant at the gesture. “Come on, what’s the worst I could do? I don’t even have any weapons on me right now.” She held out her other arm beside her so he could get a good view of the lack of weapons on her body right now. The three on the ground were starting to get worried. This ‘plan’ made no sense to them.

Kyrio stepped forward and grabbed Adora’s hand to shake it. As soon as he grabbed her hand, Adora smirked,“Sorry about this,” she said, before pulling his arm as hard as she could. His head slammed into the metal bars, the metal helmet and bars colliding with a loud clang sound. He immediately collapsed from the hit, unconscious. Adora looked down at his body with a look of pity. That would definitely hurt tomorrow.

Catra, Bow and Glimmer stood up in their shock of the latest turn of events. “How did you come up with that?!” Bow asked. Adora shrugged, “I don’t know.” The three noted how nonchalant Adora was for the situation they were in, a lot like her magicat girlfriend. Catra thought it was the best and hottest thing Adora had ever done. The other two were concerned that this “plan” would result in something blowing up.

“Ok, so how do we get the keys from the wall?” Catra asked, smiling at her girlfriend. “Oh! I already thought of that” Adora said while forming her sword from thin air. She turned the sword into a thin stick with a large hook at the end. She stuck the stick through the bars, grabbing the keys and easily bringing them back to her. Adora stuck her hand through the bars and unlocked their cell door, swinging it open with a large clang, while laughing.

Catra chuckled at Adora’s confidence, “What’s the plan now, princess?” The plan was pretty obvious now, and they all knew it. Get out of her, get to Darla, fly home. Simple. 

“Let’s just go with the flow!” Adora said while shrugging as she ran out. 

The three stood there, surprised that Adora, the same girl who spends hours upon hours planning for anything, just told them to “go with the flow”.

Glimmer laughed, “You’re a bad influence on her, Catra.” 

Catra, knowing Glimmer was joking, laughed along. “Yeah, I know.” They all began to run after Adora.

\----  
3\. Prank War

While Catra and Adora were in the Horde, they loved to play pranks on their fellow cadets. What else are you supposed to do in a warzone? Playing pranks on Kyle was so easy, anyway.

Glimmer knew of this childhood hobby they had. She remembered Catra mentioning it while she was imprisoned on Horde Prime’s ship. She desperately hoped that this hobby wouldn’t continue when they began to live in Brightmoon. She REALLY didn’t want to deal with the paperwork that would follow from the pranks those two could pull. 

Unfortunately for Glimmer, the two ex-Horde members would definitely continue pulling pranks. What else were they supposed to do now that there was no war to fight? The only thing that would change now was that they would really have to up the ante, since princesses are a lot harder to prank than Kyle. They would start off simple, though. 

Their first prank was on Glimmer. Of course it was. They had set up a small bucket full of glitter above her door while she was asleep. How they even managed to get into her room, set the trap, and also escape without waking Glimmer and Bow up was a mystery to her. She had woken up the next day and, as expected, all of the rainbow-coloured glitter fell onto her. It looked like a unicorn threw up on her.

She stormed to Catra and Adora’s room and slammed the door open, not caring what she saw. The two were sleeping peacefully, with Melog asleep at the foot of the bed. Glimmer sighed in relief at her fully clothed friends, but she then huffed at the sight of them looking so happy after covering Glimmer in glitter. She walked over, leaving a trail of glitter behind her, and shook the two idiots awake. 

Adora sat up quickly and on-alert. Catra slowly sat up groggily, while still rubbing her closed eyes, “What do you want, Sparkles?” Adora had immediately noticed the glitter, but didn’t say anything until Catra saw it too, to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. Catra opened her eyes, and the moment she saw the glitter she began to laugh in that high-pitched voice that made Adora happy and Glimmer angry. “What happened to you?” she asked smugly, knowing how much that would anger the Queen. “You two happened to me!” Glimmer crossed her arms, the motion sending glitter everywhere. Adora wiped some off their bed, laughing, and looked up at Glimmer, “C’mon, it’s pretty funny. Have you seen yourself?” 

Huh. Glimmer actually hadn’t thought to look in a mirror while stomping over here. She walked over to a floor length mirror and looked at herself. It was worse than she thought. While the glitter was mostly in her hair, face and shoulders, there were still bits of it all over to her. There wasn’t any of her body that didn’t currently have at least a little glitter on it. 

She had to admit, it was actually pretty funny. She laughed at the sight of her glitter-covered pyjamas and turned to the couple. They looked on the verge of sleep. “Fine, it’s funny. But don’t pull anything like this on me again, okay?” Catra and Adora nodded, giving each other a knowing smirk. Glimmer didn’t want to know what that meant. 

\----  
While Catra and Adora didn’t actually do any more pranks on Glimmer, they did continue to do one prank for every member of the Rebellion. 

Every. Single. Member.

They replaced Bow’s arrows with super bendy material, rendering them useless. They covered Spinerella and Netossa’s room in nets which Netossa couldn’t make disappear with a swipe of her hand. They gave Sea Hawk a flamethrower for his birthday which wasn’t really a prank but still caused a lot of fires, and they were hoping that would happen. They replaced all the flowers in Perfuma’s mediation room with cacti. They replaced Frosta’s chair in the war room with a block of ice. They released a bunch of baby scorpions in the Scorpion Kingdom. 

Obviously, they didn’t do all of this at once. This all happened over the span of around 2 years. 

Nobody knew HOW those two did all of these things, but they knew it was them, even if they denied it as much as they could. 

They were planning to do their prank on Micah when Glimmer finally decided to intervene. She knew her father was the last member of the Rebellion to not get pranked, and really didn’t want him to fall victim to her friends’ chaotic hobby. 

She held a Princess meeting without telling Catra or Adora what the meeting was about. When the couple showed up, everyone was already there, staring at them, and had left two seats in the middle of the seats for them.

When the two hesitantly sat down, Glimmer started explaining, hands intertwined on the table to show her seriousness, “This is an intervention. You guys need to stop with the pranks. They’re the worst.” The Princesses (plus Bow and Sea Hawk) nodded in approval, even though Sea Hawk actually liked his ‘prank’. Catra, smug as ever, laughed at their attempts to stop them. Even Adora seemed too smug for the situation, smiling with an arm wrapped around Catra. The two were very rarely ever this smug, but on the rare occasions they were, it was the worst for everyone except them. 

“We have no idea what you’re talking about.” Catra shrugged. Everyone sighed, and Mermista decided to take matters into her own hands, “We ALL know it's you guys! All the evidence leads to you! I’ve read enough Mer-Mysteries books to know that it HAS to be you! So, like, stop it.” Her voice rose more and more, but she reigned in her frustration in the last sentence, while pointing an accusatory finger at the couple. 

Adora chuckled, deciding to spare the Princesses from having to force them to stop, “Fine, we’ll stop. It’s not like there are any other Rebellion members to prank. We couldn’t think of anything to do for Micah, anyway.” Micah didn’t know if he should be offended or proud of the fact that they couldn’t think of a single way to prank him. 

The group reluctantly took this response, and the meeting was adjourned. Catra and Adora actually stopped doing any pranks. Well, stopped doing BIG pranks, that is. 

\----  
4\. The Rebellion Bans

Immediately after the war ended, the members of the Rebellion realized just how little they had actually talked to each other about anything other than war plans. They didn’t know what to talk about with each other, and it made meetings so much more awkward now that they weren’t fighting to stop the end of the universe.

Everyone was too nervous to do something about it, so the awkwardness continued on. Perfuma, being the kind-hearted soul she is, decided to take matters into her own hands when it was apparent that nobody else would. 

You’d think that after saving the universe on multiple occasions that the Rebellion members would be more sociable, but nope. They were all a bunch of nervous idiots. 

Perfuma discussed a plan with Scorpia. The two decided the best way to get the group to talk to each other more was to hold a weekly Game Night. It was the perfect plan! How could anyone screw up Game Night? 

Catra and Adora could. 

Okay, to be fair, it didn’t start out bad. The Rebellion members had actually taken the idea pretty well and were having a lot of fun. They had decided to start off easy, with a game of Monopoly. 

That was definitely their first mistake of the night. 

Everyone was laughing and joking around with each other, even Catra and Adora. It was still pretty early in the night, and people were having a lot of fun already. Some people were snacking on anything they could find in the Brightmoon kitchens. 

It wasn’t until the middle of the night that everything started going downhill. Catra was currently winning, with Adora in a close second. Catra was teasing Adora a little too much, trying to make her frustrated. It was definitely working, based on how increasingly red Adora’s face got with a mix of anger and embarrassment. “Aww c’mon Adora, you can do this,” she would say without meaning it one bit. 

They continued to play, but neither Adora or Catra would lose. Everyone else just gave up and watched the two while not really participating. Eventually, Adora got tired and decided to put an end to the joking. “Okay, Catra. Let’s have a sparring match to decide who wins. Whoever wins the match, wins the game and gets bragging rights.” She held her hand out towards her girlfriend. Glimmer and Bow tried to interject that this wasn’t how the game worked at all, but they knew nothing would stop them. Catra smirked, and shook Adora’s hand, tail swinging slowly behind her. “You got yourself a deal, princess.”

\----  
The rules of the sparring match were that Adora couldn’t use She-Ra and Catra couldn’t use her claws at all. Everyone else watched from benches on the side of the training room, already having made bets on who would win. They were tied on whether Catra or Adora would win.

Catra and Adora stood facing each other in fighting stances, each holding a training staff identical to the ones they used in the Fright Zone. They were holding a stare with each other, waiting for Netossa to tell them to start. 

“3... 2… 1… GO!” 

The two began to clash instantly, Catra trying to hit Adora in the legs and Adora trying to hit Catra in her arms. They both knew their weaknesses very well. 

The group sitting on the benches watched excitedly, waiting to see who would win the bet or not. Although, their excitement slowly dimmed more and more as the fight went on as they realized that neither Catra nor Adora were going to win. They were equals, after all. 

They had decided to have 3 matches to determine who would win, since that meant nobody could tie. The first match, Adora had won and was very annoying about it. Catra won the next round, and all of Adora’s confidence left her. Both rounds were relatively quick and only took around fifteen minutes. 

The third round, though, was endless. Both opponents were too determined to lose, but too tired to win. 

Eventually, Netossa decided to allow Adora to use She-Ra and Catra to use her claws, and they all moved to the gardens outside, which were lit up with bright lanterns. 

That was the second mistake of the night. 

Again, She-Ra and Catra stood in fighting stances staring at one another, waiting for Netossa’s word. 

“3… 2… 1… GO!”

This fight was a LOT faster than the other, but still took way too long. Adora was trying her best not to actually hurt Catra, while the magicat was unleashing almost all her strength onto She-Ra. It was frustrating her that Adora wasn’t using much of her power but still hadn’t lost. 

Catra decided to go for a different tactic.

“Hey, Adora. I didn’t realize how weak you got after the war ended. Lost your edge, I guess.” She shrugged theatrically and began to jump onto some large rocks placed throughout the garden. This seemed to anger Adora, who also changed battle tactics. 

Instead of hitting Catra directly with weak hits, she put all her power into attacking Catra’s surroundings, making it harder to avoid Adora’s hits later. She shot beams of magic through the rock that Catra was perched on. The rock sliced in half and Catra, who did not seem to expect this, fell off. She-Ra ran after her, but Catra was quicker, and ran over to the wall of the Palace. 

Glimmer, who was watching this all happen while sitting on a couch they had moved outside, predicted what was going to happen before it did. She tried to stop She-Ra, but it was too late.

Catra had already scaled up the wall a few feet, taunting Adora from her spot. Adora, blinded by her competitiveness, shot a large beam of magic straight into the Palace walls. 

It wasn’t until she heard the crumbling of the walls that she realized what she had done. 

“Oh, shi-” 

The wall began to fall apart. Catra jumped off before she was crushed to death. 

\----  
Catra and Adora sat in the War Room beside each other, looking guilty as ever. 

The other Rebellion members watched them with a hard look, especially Micah, who wasn’t at the Game Night but saw what happened the morning after when he went for his morning walk. 

“That was very irresponsible of you two. You could have destroyed half the Palace,” Micah told them sternly. Almost like how a father would lecture his children about something they did wrong. “Yeah. We know,” Catra replied quietly, while looking down. Adora, on the other hand, held direct eye contact, “We’re sorry for our recklessness. We’ll accept any punishment you see fit.” She had a pleading look in her eyes.

Micah’s look turned from a stern, punishing one to a sad, empathetic one at the sight. It broke his heart to think about the way these two were raised and manipulated by someone as evil as Shadow Weaver. Micah could never even imagine treating Glimmer like that. He could still see the ways that the masked woman had affected the two young heroes in front of him today, even after her death. 

He vowed then and there to be the positive parent figure that Catra and Adora never had in their childhood. It was the least they deserved after all they’d gone through. 

Micah sighed, “It’s okay, guys. We just don’t want to have to repair the castle every time there’s a Game Night.” Catra looked up from where she was staring at the floor, expecting a big punishment and yelling. She reminded Micah a lot of Glimmer. 

Perfuma decided to contribute to the conversation, “Yes, but you two are banned from participating in Game Night.” She said this while smiling, but it was obvious she was extremely serious about this. Adora seemed pretty angry about that.

“What?! Come on, guys! Seriously?!” Adora flailed her arms around wildly. 

“No arguments! You can still come to the Game Nights but you just can’t play any of the games.” Perfuma was surprisingly stern when she needed to be. 

Adora pouted and crossed her arms, leaning back into her chair, “Okay, but you all are just jealous of how good we are.” That reminded Micah of himself at her age. Catra laughed at her girlfriend’s sadness, and patted her shoulder, “Fine. We won’t play anymore, but we’re definitely going to raid the entire kitchen.” 

Perfuma smiled at that, “Deal.”

\----  
That was the first of many other bans created to prevent the destruction of friendships or Palaces. The group officially called them the Rebellion Bans.

\----  
5\. Motherly Instinct

A year or so after the war ended, the Best Friend Squad headed out to space to help bring magic back to the universe. With some help from the Star Siblings, they were able to create the Intergalactic Rebellion, a group of people fighting to bring magic to any planet that wanted it and to rid the Universe of any trace of Horde Prime’s wrath. 

That was around fifteen years ago. 

Currently, the Best Friend Squad was attending a huge gala at Brightmoon held for any members of the Intergalactic Rebellion. It was just a way to catch up with friends they had met along their journey throughout the universe, and it was a long, long journey. They made it all the way to Eternia, across the Universe from them, and back, while also bringing back Adora’s family with them. 

Randor and Marlena, Adora’s parents, were currently looking at a map of Etheria hung up on the wall. They were so interested in the small, underdeveloped planet that their daughter grew up on, even though they had visited countless times since they had met Adora a few years ago.

They stopped their reading and went to go stand with their children and friends. They still couldn’t believe, after all these years, that their little princess had returned to them. Their family had been reunited. While they were a little disappointed that Adora had decided to stay on Etheria, they understood her decision. She had a family on Etheria, too.

“Hello! How are you all enjoying the party?” Marlena asked, while leaning on her husband. It was just Adam, Adora, and Catra standing there. Adora and Adam smiled up at them. It still surprised Marlena how similar those two were. “Hey, mom! It’s great! We’ll probably wrap up the party soon, though. You guys are welcome to stay with us if you don’t want to go home yet,” Adora offered. Catra turned to Marlena and nodded, smiling to show her agreement. Catra didn’t seem to like Marlena or Randor all that much, but was still very polite with them. They were the King and Queen of Eternia, after all. 

Marlena smiled at Adora calling her ‘mom’. She had always wanted to hear her say that, but never got the chance. Even when they first met, Adora never called her ‘mom’. They were practically strangers. Over the years, though, as they became closer, she eventually did start using the term to refer to Marlena. 

“No, that’s alright, dear. Your father and I have some matters to deal with back home tomorrow morning that we simply cannot miss. Royal duties.” Adora nodded with a smile. Marlena wishes she could spend more time on Etheria with her daughter and her friends. 

Just as she saw Randor was about to discuss something with the twins, Marlena noticed two of Adora’s best friends, Glimmer and Bow, begin to rush over to the group frantically. 

Catra and Adora turned towards the two panicked rulers of Brightmoon. “What’s up with you two?” Catra asked smugly, but she still looked concerned. 

“King Polus is coming here right now. Go talk to him!” Glimmer was ordering them, but it sounded a lot more like pleading. Catra and Adora looked over to each other with an annoyed look. 

King Polus was, to put in nicely, the biggest pain in the ass the group had ever had to deal with. He loved to talk about the most boring and monotonous things, and none of them could talk to him for more than 5 minutes without wanting to rip their ears off, especially Catra.

“Why do we have to do it, Sparkles?”

“Because I don’t want to, now go!” 

“No! You and Bow are the Queen and King of Brightmoon, you do it!”

“You’re my Royal Advisor and Adora is She-Ra! You two do it!”

The two continued their bickering. The way they bickered reminded Marlena a lot of how Adora and Adam bickered with each other. It was… endearing. 

Speaking of Adora, she was currently trying to break up their growing argument along with Bow before people noticed. 

Suddenly, Adora grabbed Catra’s arm and pulled her up to stand beside her. Catra seemed confused at the sudden pull and, to be honest, so was everyone else in the group. 

“We can’t talk to King Polus! I just heard Finn crying. I need Catra to come with me to help them!” She was obviously lying and everyone knew it, but Adora stood confident in her words. Glimmer sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose, “Adora, there’s no way you heard Finn crying over all the music and people. Just go talk to the King!” Adora, despite being a horrible actor, kept going along with the lie, “No, I did! It’s just uh… my motherly instinct. Yeah, that’s it.” She sounded unsure of herself. 

Glimmer was fed up, and was about to start arguing when Catra decided to back Adora up. “Oh! I hear them, too! What, with my heightened sense of hearing and all,” she flicked a fluffy ear for emphasis. They both nodded at Glimmer. 

Glimmer tried to grab the two of them, but Catra and Adora immediately started running for the door, with Adora yelling back to her furious friend, “Sorry, Glimmer! Motherly instinct! We can’t just leave our baby!” 

Glimmer groaned dramatically while throwing her head back in anger. “I can’t BELIEVE them! Y’know, Adora never would’ve pulled something like this before her and Catra got together.” Glimmer was obviously joking about that last part. Her and Catra are very close friends, almost like sisters, and Glimmer likes having her around. Bow chuckled at that. Glimmer grabbed her husband and began storming over to King Polus. 

Now, all that was left of the group was Marlena, Randor, and Adam. “Did… did that really just happen?” Adam pointed to the door that Adora and Catra ran through. Randor laughed, “Yes. Yes it did. Your sister is a terrible liar.” Adam nodded, and the two began to discuss other matters. 

Marlena took this opportunity to go check on her daughter. 

\----  
Catra and Adora didn’t live in Brightmoon Palace anymore, but their room in the Palace was still available to them when they needed it, like today. They had placed their 6 month old baby, Finn, in there so that they could sleep peacefully and Catra and Adora could be nearby if they needed anything. 

Marlena knocked on the door, and was greeted by Catra holding a baby with little cat ears on their head and dark brown hair, just like their mother’s. Turns out Adora’s “motherly instinct” was correct in that Finn actually was crying. 

“Oh! Queen Marlena, come in. Adora’s just inside.” Marlena smiled at the magicat. “There is no need to call me Queen Marlena, Catra. We’re family.” Catra nodded sheepishly and moved over to welcome her into the room. Just as she stepped in, Catra left. She likely would be going to the kitchen to grab a bottle of milk for the baby, but she probably also wanted to give Marlena and Adora some privacy. 

Marlena saw Adora out on the balcony, sitting on a small couch looking at the stars. She knew Adora was worried about something, as she had seen Randor do the exact same thing countless times. She smiled at the sight and walked over to stand beside the couch. Adora looked over at her, “Oh! Mom, hey. What’s wrong?” Adora scooted over on the couch to make room for her mother, and she sat down beside her. 

“Nothing, just wanted to check up on you. By the way, nice job on the whole “motherly instinct” thing. It worked well.” Marlena chuckled. Adora laughed sheepishly, “Oh, I don’t know what that was. It was stupid,” she looked down. Marlena decided to try to lighten the mood a bit.

“Y’know, your father and I would use the exact same excuse with Adam to get out of parties,” she admitted. Adora looked surprised at that, “Really?” Marlena nodded, “Worked like a charm.” They laughed together.

“So, what were you thinking about here all by yourself?”

Adora looked back up at the stars, “Nothing,” she lied. Marlena gave her an incredulous look. “Come on, Adora. I’m your mother. You think I can’t tell when my daughter is worried about something?” Adora sighed, knowing she couldn’t get out of this. 

“I just… Finn looks exactly like Catra. And that’s a great thing! I love how similar those two are, but I’m worried that Finn won’t know that I’m their mother, too. What if they don’t know how much I love them? I know it’s stupid, bu-” she was cut off by Marlena holding her hand out. 

“It’s not stupid. Your father felt the exact same way when you and Adam were born. All three of us looked identical, and he didn’t look like he was a part of our family at all. He was worried you two would be embarrassed by the fact that your father looks nothing like you,” Marlena smiled sadly at the memory. Adora listened intently. “But, as it turns out, Adam actually said ‘papa’ before ‘mama’, so he obviously knew Randor is his father and is proud of it. ” They laughed quietly at that. 

“You really think Finn will know how much I love them?” Adora asked nervously. Marlena wrapped an arm around her daughter. Adora leaned her head on her mother’s shoulder. 

I know it. You’re an amazing mother, and Finn will see that.” Adora smiled at that. “Thank you. I love you, mom.” 

“I love you, too, Adora.” 

They ended up sleeping there on the couch, with Adora leaning on Marlena’s shoulder. 

\----  
+1: Meeting the Parents

Bow’s family is BIG. He has twelve brothers, all of which are currently visiting their dads together for the first time in many years. Usually, just one or two come over, but today they all decided to visit to celebrate the ending of the war. 

Bow walked into Catra and Adora’s room to tell them that they would be meeting his entire family in 2 days. This was going to be quick, since he had to help Glimmer with someone in the war room. When he walked in, Adora was writing something at the desk in their room and Catra was napping in a sunny patch on their bed. 

‘Hey, guys! Glimmer and I are going to be visiting my family in two days. All of my brothers are going to be there! Wanna come with us?” He waited for their responses. Adora beamed at him, “That sounds great, Bow! We can’t wait.” Bow looked over to Catra, who continued to sleep, unaware of Bow’s presence. “‘I’ll tell her later,” Adora told him, giggling at how cute Catra looked. 

Bow took Adora’s answer and left to go help Glimmer.

As soon as Bow closed the door, Catra began to open her mismatched eyes. Good timing. 

She stretched out across the bed. She was still stretching blissfully when she looked over to see Adora staring at her with a dopey grin and loving eyes. Catra began to blush at the attention and threw a pillow in Adora’s direction. Adora laughed as the pillow landed in her lap surprisingly gracefully. 

She stood up and laid down beside Catra. 

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

“How was your nap?”

“Good,” she stretched again. Adora giggled again at the sight. She decided now would be a good time to tell Catra about their plans two days from now. 

“Hey, we’re going to meet Bow’s family in two days. Just wanted to tell you in advance.” Catra snorted. “What’s wrong with Arrow Boy’s family? Do they hate me or something?” 

Adora just looked at her. Wait, did they actually hate her? I mean, it was likely since she was the Horde Second in Command for a while. 

“He has 12 brothers. Oh, and one of his dads, George, fought with the old Rebellion and hates the Horde.” 

Oh. That explains why Adora warned her. “So, do you want to go? We don’t have to if you really don’t want to. Bow will understand.” Adora grabbed Catra’s hand and rubbed her thumb across the thin fur there. Catra smiled at Adora’s gentleness.

“Don’t worry so much, dummy. I’ll go. It’s fine.”  
\-----  
Everything was NOT fine. 

It was the day before they were going to meet Bow’s family, and Catra was spiraling. She had the entire day to herself. Adora had left to go help out in a nearby village for the day, and Bow and Glimmer were reading some paperwork with Micah. At least Melog was with Catra, but their mane was a sad grey colour, showing how worried she currently was. 

Catra had found a large piece of fabric and repurposed it into a board she could plan on. If she was going to be attacked by all of Bow’s family, she might as well create a battle plan to prepare. 

She found a scary amount of information on each and every one of Bow’s family members to use as weaknesses. Even Bow. You never know which side he’d choose. 

Surprisingly, all of Bow’s brothers had names starting with a B. Catra wonders why they decided to only name their sons with names that start with a B, but she had bigger things to think about at the moment.

Bow’s brothers' names were Ben, Brian, Bruce, Barry, Bartholomew, Brandon, Brad, Bobby, Bradley, Bill, Benedict, and Baker. Believe it or not, Baker was actually a baker. How George and Lance managed to predict what their child’s profession would be through their name twice will forever be a mystery to Catra. 

She had set up the makeshift board to show the entire family and any information Catra had dug up on them. She connected each brother to information that was about them with different coloured yarn. 

Catra would never admit this to anyone, but she may have taken a small break to play with the yarn. That was something that would go with her to the grave. 

Catra was so caught up in thinking of a battle strategy that she didn’t realize how late it had gotten. It was almost midnight. Adora, Glimmer and Bow pushed open the door of Catra and Adora’s bedroom with bright smiles on their faces, happy to be able to relax after working all day.

“Hey Catr-'' Adora stopped when she saw the fabric covered to the brim with pictures and yarn. The three of them immediately recognized the board as the same one Adora used when she obsessively planned out the Princess Prom. They began to giggle at the sight of Catra acting so much like Adora.

“What’s all this?” Adora hesitantly walked in. 

Catra turned around to face her girlfriend, “Oh, this is my plan for what I’m going to do when I meet Bow’s family,” she said as if it was such a simple thing. Adora was starting to get worried, though. “What do you mean ‘what you’re going to do when you meet Bow’s family’?” Adora walked over to Catra and put the pen and yarn she was holding on the table so she could hold Catra’s hands. 

Catra looked in her eyes, “Well, you said that Bow’s dads hate the Horde, so they’ll obviously hate me. So, I familiarized myself with my targets so that I could create the perfect battle strategy for when they start attacking me.” She let go of Adora’s hands to grab a stack of small papers from a nearby table and hand them to Glimmer. “Ask me anything.”

Glimmer began to laugh a lot harder at the sight of the flashcards. Bow followed soon after. Adora tried to hold in her laughs, knowing it would embarrass Catra more. Catra looked at them laughing, “What?”

Glimmer stopped laughing enough to respond, “It’s just, Adora did this exact same thing when we were planning to go to Princess Prom. She used the exact same board and gave me flashcards just like this. You two are a lot more alike than you realize, Catra.” 

Catra’s eyes widened at the idea of being like Adora. It’s not that she didn’t like how Adora acted. She loved her, but Catra always imagined them as polar opposites. The idea that she was becoming more like Adora freaked her out. 

“What? Adora and I are nothing alike. You’re being ridiculous!” She crossed her arms and huffed out a breath, only blushing slightly. This only made Glimmer and Bow laugh more. “C’mon Catra. Would it be such a bad thing to be more like your girlfriend?” Adora looked at her expectantly. “Yes! Yes, it would be a bad thing! I love Adora, but she’s a complete idiot.” 

Adora laughed at that and wrapped an arm around Catra, “Aw, that really hurts my feelings, Catra.” She said this while doing a dramatic pout and trying to hold in a laugh, so Catra knew she didn’t really care about being called an idiot. 

Glimmer stopped laughing and looked up at Catra, “Wait. You’ve spent this entire time learning everything you could about Bow and his family.” Catra nodded, confused. “So, did you find any embarrassing pictures or stories about Bow?” Bow looked horrified at the thought of Catra knowing everything about his family. “So many, but I’ll spare you this time, Arrow Boy.”

Glimmer sighed in defeat, and changed the subject, “Great. So what are you going to wear?” 

Catra obviously hadn’t thought about that, “Oh, I was just going to wear this.” The three of them looked down at Catra’s usual outfit. It’s nice, but not very suitable for a fancy dinner. Glimmer sighed.

“No! You need to wear something nicer!” 

“I don’t have anything nicer. Unless you want me to wear my spacesuit to dinner.” 

Glimmer suddenly gasped and looked like she had stars in her eyes, “You know what this means?” Adora knew exactly where this was going. Glimmer had said the exact same thing to her before Princess Prom.

“IT’S MAKEOVER TIME!"


End file.
